Scientists Find Oil On The Gulf's Seafloor, In Least Surprising News Of 2010

Does anyone even remember that time the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and touched off a massive undersea oil volcano? Last I heard, the good news was that the oil had mainly disappeared, through a combination of hungry microbes, and also miracles! But reporters in the Gulf told other stories. And while America was preparing to burn Qurans for 9/11 Day, NPR went out and found the missing oil. Three guesses where they found it!

Scientists on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico are finding a substantial layer of oily sediment stretching for dozens of miles in all directions. Their discovery suggests that a lot of oil from the Deepwater Horizon didn't simply evaporate or dissipate into the water -- it has settled to the seafloor.

The Research Vessel Oceanus sailed on Aug. 21 on a mission to figure out what happened to the more than 4 million barrels of oil that gushed into the water. Onboard, Samantha Joye, a professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, says she suddenly has a pretty good idea about where a lot of it ended up. It's showing up in samples of the seafloor, between the well site and the coast.

"I've collected literally hundreds of sediment cores from the Gulf of Mexico, including around this area. And I've never seen anything like this," she said in an interview via satellite phone from the boat.

Scientists describe the oil they've found as "fluffy" and "porous" and "more than 2 inches thick" and "all over the place" and containing "recently dead shrimp, worms and other invertebrates." Says Samantha Joye, of the University of Georgia's Marine Sciences Department, "It's starting to sound like a tremendous amount of oil. And we haven't even sampled close to the wellhead yet."

[Hat Tip: The Washington Independent]

MORE:
Scientists Find Thick Layer Of Oil On Seafloor [NPR]

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Comments

[bipolarcat452]

09:52 PM on 09/19/2010

Is there anyone out there still brave or perhaps foolhardy enough to eat ANY kind of seafood whatsoever that is caught in the Gulf of Mexico? Sort of like those commercials I see every so often for the Popeye's fast food chain currently promoting their 'Louisiana Shrimp Special' with jazz playing in the background an folks with big smiles eating that deep-fried shrimp. Wonder if they'll still be smiling 6 - 8 Months from now when the dr tells them they have inoperable stomache or intestinal cancer(s) ? Hey, don't listen to me, just be sure to ask where that shrimp came from, assuming the guy at the resturant who cooked it tells you the truth.

[mtrav]

06:42 PM on 09/19/2010

This is an environmental disaster of epic proportions and one we will to live with for generations. Anyone who thought it all went bye bye by itself is totally deluded.

[Bostontru2u]

05:32 PM on 09/19/2010

That knowledge is horrible and scary. Poor oil on the bottom, Golf Coast!

[dmighty]

08:04 AM on 09/15/2010

Optimists may look at this news this way: the oil on the sea floor will eventually form a rich vein of "tar sands" for future generations to exploit. So,as she always does, Providence has found a way to ensure future generations will not be impoverished for lack of natural resources. Thank you BP :)

[Telemachus]

03:14 PM on 09/15/2010

There are only two categories of "optimists" that I can see voicing that viewpoint:

1. Those who are so delusional that they think any human being will ever be around to enjoy the benefits of this "rich vein of 'tar sands'" when it finally materializes, millions of years from now; and

2. Shills paid by BP or some other criminal enterprise.

[NoSillyName]

05:29 PM on 09/15/2010

Um, you are a true "cockeyed optimist".

[The last sane American]

07:33 AM on 09/15/2010

As usual, the key for any story is in the final chapter. And this piece is no exception

"But the ecological impacts of oil on the seafloor depend on the depth of the ocean where it lies. Joye's findings so far have found oil in depths ranging from 300 to 4,000 feet. Shallower waters, in particular, are potentially important not just for life on the bottom but for the entire marine ecosystem.

"A lot of fish go down to the bottom and eat and then come back up," Hollander says. "And if all their food sources are derived from the bottom, then indeed you could have this impact."

Figuring all that out though, will probably take many years."

And assured funding (employment) for the same period.

Gota luv it

[Telemachus]

02:26 PM on 09/15/2010

Big Oil will make sure that the transition to renewable energy sources will take many years.

And assured funding (oil profits) for the same period.

Gotta love it.

[The last sane American]

02:44 PM on 09/15/2010

If you have the "mousetrap" then go and screw them.

Else-wise join the rest of us as we slowly wean ourselves of our need for fossil energy.

[maxfax]

11:12 PM on 09/14/2010

And another expert claims there's more oil in the Gulf contradicting the government and British Petroleum.

http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20100914/FEATURES12/100919661/1292?Title=Storms-will-spread-subsurface-oil-LSU-researcher-claims-

[maxfax]

11:07 PM on 09/14/2010

There's more oil being spotted daily.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/09/louisiana_authorities_report_o_30.html#comments

[Jason Fish Miller]

09:18 PM on 09/14/2010

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

[baffledman]

09:07 PM on 09/14/2010

Who doesn't get that we are owned by oil..every politician and everyone of us. We put men on the moon you think we can't run a car on something else? Make a plastic like material out of something else. This country keeps the Oil industry's cash flow fertile and until they have ravaged every inch of this globe and exhausted every bit of it we will be using it. They have enough money to do anything they want and they do..Our last administration were Oil men...look what they got away with. We went to War why...what company is still there and rich...it is so obvious

[Puzzlr]

07:29 PM on 09/14/2010

I don't understand why so many people were so quick to get people back to the beaches and to eating Gulf shrimp. Reminds me of Jaws and how worried people were about their wallets and not about the people in the water.

[PartyOfMaybe]

06:37 PM on 09/14/2010

in other news, science suggests that cars might actually run on fairy dust and wishes... govt-owned GM to produce first fairy-powered auto in 2012 model year

[BannedNBoston]

03:17 PM on 09/14/2010

http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/dow-jones-feds-contract-away-bp-subsidiary-concerns-company-be-able-paying-20-billion-video
http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/bp-cleanup-worker-photographs-submerged-fishkill-only-imagine-many-bottom-photo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAeWlgDBdKM&feature=player_embedded

[peterg76]

03:16 PM on 09/14/2010

All the "clean-up" effort has been aimed at hiding the evidence of a crime, not in actually fixing the problem.

(Okay, "all" is maybe a little unfair, but certainly most of the effort.)

[calimari]

02:57 PM on 09/14/2010

Here I sit with my liberal arts degree and non-scientific background, and even my guess about the missing oil was that it had settled to the sea floor, and had not miraculously evaporated, dissipated, or got gobbled up by fat microbes. Now how do we get the focus back on this and off of Paris Hilton, Sarah Palin, the Koran, etc?

[Telemachus]

02:23 PM on 09/15/2010

As long as Rupert Murdoch and the Koch brothers have anything to say about it, sideshows will remain front and center.

[Mark Montgomery]

01:45 PM on 09/14/2010

"recently dead shrimp, worms and other invertebrates?"

Hey were just using oil to make more oil. Thinking of the future.